Everything's a Lab

As a mathematician and an engineer, I prefer lectures to labs. I wish God would explain first what's about to happen in a lecture, and then we could go out in the world and do it (the lab bit). No surprises, no crisis. Good luck with that!

In real life, everything's a lab. The experience comes first, and then God explains it. And he explains it through the experience. We learn so much more from the pain of living through the experience then we would from the just the lecture.

That's why James can say, “Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). So let's partner with him and not resist what he's trying to teach us. 

God uses the crisis in our lives to provoke us in the area he wants to heal next.

Experience Leads

It's ok for our experience to get ahead of our theology. It's ok for God to do things we don't understand yet. And he often will.

Just look at the blind man in John 9, who Jesus healed with mud on the Sabbath. Jesus knew the religious leaders would consider making mud “work” and hence unlawful on the Sabbath. He intentionally did a Messiah miracle in a way they thought the Messiah wasn't supposed to do miracles. So they had a choice – they could choose their theology – the box they thought they had God in – or they could choose God (Jesus).

We have the same choice when we see God do things we don't understand or manifest in ways we don't like. The key is to look at the fruit and not be biased by our personal preferences. Often God will intentionally do things to offend us and heal us from our personal preferences.

It's ok for God to do his God-thing in a way we don't like. After all, which one of us is God?

Who's on the Throne?

My friend “Nate” was a pot smoker. Generally a good guy who loved the Lord. But a pot smoker. In the course of our friendship, I felt led to address this area in his life. (And as his small group leader, it was my place to do so.)

It was a friendly conversation because we had a good relationship. I had all my reasons why it was a bad idea, and he had all his reasons why it was ok, every one of which I disagreed with, but he was sticking to them. We were just going round and round, getting nowhere. Maybe you've had that conversation.

I silently prayed, “Lord, what can I say that will make a difference? What do you want me to say?” And I got an answer.

So I said, “Nate, we've gone round and round on a lot of stuff we're just going to have to agree to disagree about. But let me leave you with this thought. There are two things we both know are true. First, you smoke pot because you want to? Not a condemnation, just a fact. Yes?”

Nate agreed, “Yes, I do want to. I like it.”

“Ok,” I continued. “The second thing we both know is true is that God does not want you to.”

Nate sighed, “Yes, I know that's true.”

“Then the final thought I'm going to leave you with is, Who's sitting on the throne of your life?”

How about us? Is there any area of our life we're arguing with God about? It's time to give up.

Pastoring Vs Controlling

What does it mean to pastor someone through something? What does it mean to be pastored? What does it mean to let your Pastor pastor you through your God experiences?

Pastoring is not control. A good pastor will not tell you what to do. And he won't try to do it for you. He will give you wise guidance from the Holy Spirit that will guide you through it, and, if you're lucky, even stretch you uncomfortably a bit.

For a godly, wise pastor, it's ok for you to be in process. He doesn't (and often won't) tell you everything he knows or thinks right away, because he senses you probably can't handle it all at the moment. But he will follow the Holy Spirit's prompting and share with you what you need to hear at that moment, whether you want to hear it or not.

Ever see a hockey player take the puck down the ice? He rarely belts it straight down the ice. No, he keeps it in range of his stick and gives subtle, gentle corrections on each side, so the puck zig-zags down the ice, but generally moves in the right direction overall.

A good pastor does the same thing – giving us loving but bold instruction and even correction when we need it so we keep going in the right direction toward the goal.

It's a privilege and a huge blessing from God to be pastored through our God experiences. We just need to be spiritually mature and humble enough to accept it.

The Big Error (3 of 2)

Part 3 of 2. Counting is so over-rated! :p

Everybody wants to hear from God. But that's just the first step. What do you do after you get the revelation? There are 4 phases to hearing from God: Revelation, Interpretation, Application/Wisdom, and Timing.

In Acts 21:10-14, the prophet Agabus comes to Paul with an urgent message, a word from the Lord. He binds his own hands with Paul's belt and says, “The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles' ” (verse 11).

The revelation and interpretation are clearly both given in the word. So what's the application/wisdom? Obviously, hey Paul, don't go to Jerusalem! Duh! And all the brothers tell him so (verse 12).

But that's not God. Paul knows the word wasn't given to prevent him from going to Jerusalem, but to prepare him for what will happen to him there, so he can respond rightly to it and not as if something strange were happening to him (verse 13 and see also 1 Peter 4:12).

Even Agabus, who got the word from God and knew what it meant, didn't have the right application. So having the experience (revelation) doesn't mean you automatically have a lock on the other phases. You need to listen to your Pastor, and let him pastor you through it.

The Big Error (2 of 2)

Everybody wants to hear from God. But that's just the first step. What do you do after you get the revelation? There are 4 phases to hearing from God: Revelation, Interpretation, Application/Wisdom, and Timing.

Last week we talked about the Big Error of throwing out a person's experience because they messed up one phase and did something stupid. Today we'll talk about the Big Error in reverse.

Just because you've had an awesome God-experience doesn't mean you automatically have a lock on the other phases. You may have had an amazing dream, or been caught up to the Throne Room in Revelation 4 (or even better, the Bed Chambers to hear God's intimate plans) during worship. That doesn't mean you automatically know what it means.

Or maybe you do know what it means. Maybe an angel told you. That doesn't mean you automatically know what to do about it (the application/wisdom). Or even if you do, it doesn't mean you automatically know the timing (which very often God doesn't reveal until it happens).

You need to submit your experience to your Pastor or small group leader to pastor you through it. Even if they've never had such an experience, God will speak through them to you with great wisdom about how to walk out your experience. Listen to them.